This is the Business English Podcast Episode 62, How Brittany's Strategy Will Make You a Winning Public Speaker in English.
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Hey, Brittany, welcome to All Ears English.
Thanks for coming on today. How are you doing?
Good. Thank you for having me. Good. Excellent.
So today, Brittany, you are here to talk to us about one of the toughest topics, a topic that makes us all nervous, but it sounds like you have developed a nice kind of framework or strategy to help students get more confident with public speaking at work, right?
Definitely. Yes. Okay. Why do you think that this, well, I mean, what kind of public speaking experience do you have yourself?
Well, I have spoken in front of more than 5,000 people and I've spoken for youth. as well as adults.
And it ranges from various topics, so I cannot give you a specific topic, but it's always dealing with motivational speaking. and being able to come out of your comfort zone and show people the real you.
Wow. So you're a pro. I mean, you've gone out and you've done this in the business world, in the professional world, in your career.
And so I think we have a thing or two to learn from you.
That is so cool. So let's just dive into it.
I mean, how can we create, how can we gain that confidence throughout the whole process of preparing our speech and delivering it and everything we need to know?
Where do we start? Well, first things first, I always tell my students, Do not listen to people who say public speaking is not for everyone because we actually speak publicly every day, even if you have an audience of one.
So I say just think of everyone you come across as an audience because you want your audience to feel like you're talking directly to them.
So I created a five step process. process or framework with my students to help them to become more confident.
And the first one is I always tell them you have to grow to love talking and love people.
And I I don't mean just talking in front of a large group.
I just mean plain old talking. You know, even if you're a shy person, there's usually always someone that you love talking to all the time.
Yeah. And how do we build that love of talking and of people?
I mean, do we hone in on the things that we love, the people we love to talk to and talk to them more?
Or do we watch motivational examples? Well, you start off by talking to the people that you love.
And that you're comfortable with because they're the ones who make you feel comfortable, but also they sometimes get you out of your comfort zone.
So you want to speak to them so that you can start finding your voice.
And you can know your individual style of speaking.
I like that expression, find your voice.
And for our listeners, I mean, we're doing this in English, right, in a new language.
That makes it especially challenging, but especially important to find our voice in a new language.
Definitely, definitely. So that's how you get to know your style by language. coming to love people and love talking.
Okay. And what do we do next? So then you have to know your topic because it's so important to know your subject matter.
It's so much easier to give a speech if you have thoroughly researched and reviewed your topic.
That eliminates the anxiety and the embarrassment.
But then it's not just important to know your topic, but you have to believe in it.
Okay. Believe in it. Yeah. And how, where does that start?
How do we get to that point? Well, it's kind of hard.
My students say, but that's hard to do because I'm in the business world.
I'm talking about numbers. Well, you, do you believe the numbers?
Do you believe the numbers are true? If you believe the numbers are true and you, you know, for a fact that what you're saying that you can back it up, that is so important because then you're able to express your subject with conviction and,
And you're confident in what you're saying.
Okay. So we need to make sure that we've thoroughly prepared for a presentation, I suppose.
Yes. Yeah. But how do you prepare for a presentation?
That's so important. Tell us, Brittany. Well, you got to start writing out your topic.
Sometimes my students get very caught up in the grammar and trying to formulate it the correct way.
But I've taught them an outline technique.
So after you've done your research, you have a whole lot of material in front of you.
Sometimes when you're in the business world, they have already given you the material.
Well, now you use this outline technique.
You need an introduction. You have your body and you have your conclusion.
That no matter if you are speaking in front of one person or 5,000 people, if you are speaking for five minutes or you're speaking for an hour.
This is the formula you will always use.
Introduction, body, and conclusion. And it's so nice to have that kind of formula, that template, because we can always fall back on that, right?
If we get disoriented at any moment in our presentation, in our public speaking, we can think, okay, which part of the presentation am I in right now?
And what needs to come next? Where am I?
Definitely, definitely. And that's, it starts with your introduction.
So I tell them prepare an interesting, arousing, introduction.
And that can kind of be difficult and sometimes daunting task.
But you want something that's going to grab your audience attention.
You that is setting the tone for your entire presentation.
So I tell them, take a little bit of time on that be creative.
You if that's your main focus, that's okay.
Start with a question, a story, your personal experience, you can even do a joke or a success story.
Uh, this way, you know, if you're speaking in the business world and you're talking about, uh, you're trying to sell a product, say how successful it was for someone else that has brought, uh, purchased the product.
Yeah. And this way they can say, wow, this worked out for someone else.
Okay. Now I'm interested. Right. Telling a story.
People love stories, don't they? They do.
They do. They do. Yeah. So, so after you've done that, then you want to create your main points.
So this is the body. This is the body of your speech.
And you can have three to five main points and you can write them down, but only write down the title.
I tell them, do not write down what you're going to say.
Only write down the title of your main points.
Right. Because otherwise it becomes a crutch, right?
Our piece of paper, our note cards become a real crutch and they hinder our ability to connect with that audience, I would imagine.
Exactly. Yes, definitely. And then you want to plan a motivational conclusion.
So you want to give them a sample review of what you've spoken about.
But the main purpose of the conclusion is to move them to action.
Okay. Call to action. Exactly. So you want to tell them what you want them to do.
And I say just be as open and honest as possible.
So review everything that you've said. and then motivate them to action by telling them what you want them to do.
Yeah. Be very specific. I mean, and I think this can vary across cultures to our ability to, or not ability, but you know, how accepted it is in different cultures to be persuasive at the end or to call to a sale, for example, or to, you know, things like that.
So we have to consider the culture, but no, this is a really nice framework.
I love this. I, you know, it has helped me so much because sometimes, you know, I'm, I've been doing this a long time, but I'm still learning.
You know, every day I'm learning. So it's so important that I always go back to my foundation, which is this introduction, body and conclusion.
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So that comes to the writing out the topic and writing out, preparing the points.
Is there a next step to your five-step framework?
Yes. Practice, practice, practice. Oh, yeah.
Practicing is so important. And it also ties in with point number one, where it talks about grow to love talking.
And, you know, I always tell my students, too, how do you talk in your own native tongue?
In your own native language, think about how you speak and translate that into English as well because you don't want to lose who you are.
Yes. So practicing is so important. So I tell them, number one, practice it out loud.
Okay. You want to listen to yourself. Yeah.
So are we recording our voices, giving the presentation?
Yeah. Thank you for asking that. That was the next thing.
Record yourself. And I also tell them, record a video of themselves.
So that they can watch their facial expressions.
They can, because, you know, sometimes when we get stuck, our face puts on another expression.
So sometimes we want to, you know, we are our worst critic.
And sometimes that can be a good thing. We have to find a balance in that.
Because when we're reviewing and we're listening to ourselves, then we can be able to say, I don't like that.
I want to change this. I think this would sound better this way.
Yeah. No, that's important. We need to have that level of self-awareness, right?
But we want to go to the point where we're not really paralyzing ourselves and being super hypercritical.
Exactly. And it takes some time to do that.
You find a balance and that happens over time.
But then you also want to listen to other public speakers who are talking about the same topic.
So I tell my students, go on YouTube, go on TEDtalk.com.
Find people who are speaking about the same topic and listen to how they're saying it, not what they're saying, but how they're saying it.
I love that. I love it. There's some really good examples.
Great presentations on TED. Definitely. Definitely.
And then ask for help. Find a mentor. You know, you'll be surprised if you find a public speaker that you admire.
Email them, write to them, ask them, can you do you mind mentoring me?
They may not have the time to. They may say no, but they may give you some pointers in an email that will really help you.
You never know. You won't get it unless you ask.
Exactly. It comes down to asking. Okay. So after we've practiced, we've watched TED Talks, we've recorded ourselves, what's the final step?
Your delivery. Right. The key piece. So the day has arrived and now you're nervous and that's natural.
It's okay. I still get nervous. My stomach turns into knots.
I think I'm going to pass out. I'm like, okay, I need something to drink.
But I get up there and one of the things I tell my students is I actually tell them to drink some hot tea.
Oh, okay. Yes. And drink a calming tea like chamomile or peppermint.
And a lot of people drink coffee. I know this sounds strange, but it has nothing to do with what you're saying, but it has a lot to do with your delivery.
A lot of people drink coffee in the morning.
They're real jittery and nervous. Yes, exactly.
And that actually makes you even more nervous and jittery.
But I tell them drink a calming tea. Do some breathing exercises, you know, and tell yourself, give yourself some reassuring words.
I'm confident. I know that I know the information.
I am going to deliver this in the best way possible.
And that's all you can do. That's all you can do.
And my students say, well, that's so simple.
It is simple. Don't complicate things. Because then if you complicate things, then you lose the message that you're trying to present to your audience.
Absolutely. That's what I've seen about a lot of aspects of life, right?
For example, test prep. If you complicate things, you make it a lot harder than it has to be.
It can be simple and we can stick to straightforward frameworks and five-step processes, three-step processes.
I love this framework, Brittany. This is fantastic because the idea is that by the time we do get to the delivery, we're very well prepared.
So there's really no reason No logical reason to be nervous.
Even though our body is going to act up, it's going to be nervous.
We can calm down because we know we're prepared.
And that's what creates confidence is the preparation.
Exactly. So those are my five steps for you guys.
Thank you. That's fantastic. I really love that.
And I think that we definitely have some listeners who may have a presentation coming up soon and would love to work with you privately on this framework.
And also, of course, developing the language around these steps, right?
You know, if we don't have the right phrases, then we will get stuck at some point on our own.
Exactly. Don't you agree? Yeah. Okay. So what does your schedule look like these days?
Well, my schedule is pretty open. I've actually have finished with a lot of my students from 2015.
I took a little bit of time off and now I'm back into giving private public speaking lessons.
So I'm free. Email me and I will be able to open my schedule up for you.
Excellent. Excellent. So guys, to book a lesson with Brittany, you have a two-step process.
And you're starting at allearsenglish.com forward slash I-T-A-L-K-I.
You want to register there as a new user so that you can get a $10 credit for free from italki to go towards your second lesson with Brittany or with another teacher.
And your second step is to find Brittany on italki.
So you can go to allearsenglish.com forward slash Brittany.
Brittany, could you spell your name for us?
Yes. B-R-I-T-T-A-N-Y. Very nice. Perfect.
You can go on over, book a lesson, or of course, possibly a series of lessons to really gain that confidence that you need because people make judgments of us when we're up there making those presentations.
It's a big day, right? Yes. And I want to close with this.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, all great speakers were bad speakers first.
So have fun with it. Don't take yourself too seriously.
And always have a goal to impact at least one person in your audience.
And if you do that, you've succeeded. Oh, that's fantastic, Brittany.
This has been such a nice interview. We really appreciate it.
Very inspiring. And now I want to go work on my public speaking as well.
This is great. Well, you're excellent. You're excellent.
You're a pro as well. Thank you. Thank you.
All right. Thanks for coming on the show today, Brittany.
We hope to have you on again soon. Awesome.
Take care. Take care. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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